Zero to Max 2: Death and the Crucible
by NetRaptor
Summary: When a top Crucible player is found murdered, Max and Zero set out to catch the killer. But as they uncover Crucible fraud and the people responsible, they may be next on the hit list.
1. Chapter 1

Note: This is part 2 in a 3 part series, Zero to Max. Part 1 is Ghost of a Chance.

* * *

When I got a ticket to the Crucible championship, I should have known it wouldn't be all fun and games. But ... I mean ... Crucible. Front row seats are impossible to get, most of the time. I only got a ticket because New Monarchy was giving them out to employees.

My name is Maximilian Ross, and I've worked for New Monarchy's Tower office since I graduated college. Great place, even if it's kind of freaky to see Guardians on a daily basis. But mostly they're pretty normal. A bunch of them work for us. In the past year or so, New Monarchy started a Crucible team sponsorship. They give us tickets to all the games. When our team, Firebrand, went to the championships, everybody in the New Monarchy offices were really excited.

"It's two weeks until the game," said one of my coworkers, a guy about my age named Nathaniel. "I am so pumped! We're going to kick every ass on the Tex Mechanica team, I swear!"

"Our lineup is solid," I agreed. "The Firebrands have been practicing for months. And what's Team Longhorn got? They're all Titans. Our team will pick them off from a distance."

Nathaniel looked me up and down. "You think you'll be up to this?"

"Sure," I said, punching his shoulder. "I'm always up for a great game."

I don't like to be reminded that I have stage four cancer. It's metastasized through my whole body, and I'm only alive because of a new treatment at the research hospital. I'm not in pain, only tired all the time. Some days I can't get out of bed. But I still have to eat and keep the lights on, so back to work I go.

Nathaniel grinned, his teeth very white in his dark face. "See you there, then. We'll show up early and grab the best seats."

"Dude," I said, glancing at my ticket, "we're in the New Monarchy box. Talk about plush."

"I've been there before," Nathaniel said. "They have a stocked fridge and a private snack bar. It's super nice."

My excitement increased several degrees.

We rode the lift down out of the Tower and parted ways. I walked down the road to the bus stop, while Nat headed the other way, to the monorail station.

As I settled myself on the bench and set my heavy backpack to one side, Zero appeared. She's a Ghost who follows me around, hoping I'll be her Guardian. We solved a murder mystery together, which is how we met. She trails me like a talkative shadow, and she's good company. Makes my apartment not so lonely and empty, since Erica left.

"A Crucible championship!" Zero exclaimed, spinning the front and back of her shell in excitement. "Oh Max, this will be amazing! Getting to see Light combat up close!"

"Giving you delusions of grandeur?" I teased. "Picturing me out there in a silly robe, flying around like a graceful eagle?"

"Maybe," she replied, avoiding meeting my gaze for a moment. "I still think you'll be a wonderful Guardian, whatever class your Light takes."

I shrugged this off. I'd promised her that I'd think about becoming her Guardian. In reality, I doubted it was possible. I'd met one other person who had been alive when a ghost found them and made them a Guardian. Most of the time, ghosts resurrected dead people. I half-expected Zero to just quietly fly away someday, anyway. Her real Guardian would show up, and she'd ditch me like a smelly shirt.

The bus arrived. I paid my fare and took a seat as close to the front as I could. Zero disappeared into my backpack. It felt good to sit and rest, even on the bus's hard seat. My whole body ached with tiredness, and all I could think of was crawling into bed. Pretty bad for five in the evening. Even food didn't sound appetizing.

I trudged up the stairs to my fourth floor studio apartment and went inside. My furniture was mostly repaired after a killer had trashed it, but my computer table wobbled now, no matter how many small objects I slid under the legs. I set down my backpack, pulled off my shoes, and dragged myself to my bed, behind its partition.

Zero appeared and hovered over me as I stretched out. "Aren't you going to eat?"

"Too tired," I groaned.

She made a distressed beeping sound. Zero worried about me all the time. It was kind of nice, actually. My mom only talked to me at holidays. I missed being a kid and having someone to look after me. Zero filled that role, a little.

I must have gone straight to sleep. Zero woke me up a few hours later. She's very nice about it. People aren't supposed to touch ghosts, but Zero does this thing where she runs the tip of her shell through my hair, like a brush. It makes me laugh.

I laughed now, as I rolled over. "Five more minutes, Mom."

"I brought you dinner," Zero said. For a little ghost in a basic gray shell, she managed to convey tenderness with her eye's expression. "I had to guess at what you might like."

I caught a whiff from across the room. Sushi rolls. "How'd you know that's what would tempt me?" I exclaimed, crawling out of bed.

Zero shrugged her shell. She has this uncanny ability to read me, even guessing what food my finicky stomach will accept. Maybe there's something to her claims that I could be her Guardian.

I could only manage to force down one of the rolls, and that was slow going. Zero and I talked Crucible the whole time, especially the strengths and weaknesses of Team Firebrand.

"Team lead is our Sunsinger warlock, Forest Malkovich. Great strategist, holds the team together. Then there's the Nightstalker Hunter, May Thornhill. Never shuts up unless she's in a fight - then they never see her coming. Team spokeswoman, does all the interviews. Our Titan is Mavis Wilson, a woman built like a truck who hits like one, too. Last is our solar Hunter, Rob Khan."

"He's my favorite," Zero said dreamily. "Have you seen those knife tricks he does with his ghost?"

"Do I detect a crush?" I said, batting my eyelashes at her.

Zero's eye blushed pink for a second. "No, of course not."

"Uh huh," I said, grinning. "Deny away, little ghost. I can see through you like your shell is made of glass."

"You're not that good," she said, dipping in midair. Her eye changed to an upward V - a smile emote. "Anyway, I was going to say that Forest is good, but he's slow on the draw sometimes. Mavis pulled them through that win at the finals, but Forest was nearly down."

"He does waffle a bit," I admitted. "But boy, can he rally the team for a comeback. Remember that time May and Rob were pinned down by that other Hunter team, and Forest had Mavis charge in while he came behind her with grenades?"

Zero laughed. "I still have clips of that game. It was magnificent."

We discussed our team as I nibbled my food. Then I took my medication and went back to bed. I placed a pillow to one side for Zero. She landed on it and settled down. Her digital blue eye blinked at me from a foot away. "Sweet dreams, Maximilian Ross."

"Same to you," I said.

As I was drifting off, I felt the gentle warmth of her healing beam, head to foot, foot to head, over and over. Every night, she battled my cancer. Without a Guardian bond, her Light didn't do much, but it helped a little. I fell asleep and dreamed of floating in a warm lake of sparkling blue water.

* * *

The Crucible Championship was held two week later. The arena was in the Core District of the Last City, directly under the Traveler. The arena itself was an old city block that had been condemned years ago. The Vanguard had walled it off, filled it with cameras, and let Guardians hold their live-fire training exercises there. It was roofed by a Light shield, similar to a Ward of Dawn, which kept projectiles from escaping into the City.

Around the outside of the arena, and outside the shield, were the grandstands. These were elevated ten feet from the ground to see over the wall. Above those were the private boxes reserved for sponsors and VIPs. I was with a crowd of New Monarchy people in their box.

Like the rest of their locations, the whole room was decorated in red and gold. The fridge and snack bar were top notch, even if my stomach would only accept one small package of crisps. Nathaniel and I grabbed seats and watched the ghosts flying over the arena, activating the shield generators and checking the cameras.

"This is gonna be excellent," I said, kicking back in my chair.

"You said it," Nat replied, combing back his curly hair. "You bring that little ghost girlfriend of yours?"

"Yeah, she's around here somewhere. Zero? Are you here?"

Zero appeared in a poof of blue particles. "I'm here. And I'm not your girlfriend because I'm not _human_." She sounded offended.

"Yeah, that's right," Nathaniel said. "Guardians hook up with each other all the time. Their ghosts got no say." He winked at Zero. "So, when are you gonna make this moron a Guardian, too?"

Zero looked at me, almost shyly. "When he says he's ready."

Nathaniel nudged me. "When's that gonna be? Invite me to the wedding."

My face grew hot. "It's not like that! Uh. Is it?"

"No of course not I'll be right back bye," Zero said in a rush, and disappeared.

Nathaniel laughed. I sat there, embarrassed and massively confused. "Is it?" I repeated.

"Til death do you part and all," Nat laughed. "Or in your case, death after death after death."

I laughed to hide my discomfort. "You know, I'm going to hit the concession stand downstairs. You want anything?"

Nat saw through my feeble excuse. "No, man, you go clear your head. Game doesn't start for half an hour, anyway."

I escaped the New Monarchy box and descended the stairs to ground level. There was a whole row of concession stands and souvenir shops behind the grandstands. I stuck my hands in my pockets and walked by them.

I guess a Guardian and Ghost were paired forever, weren't they? Sure, the Guardian gets all kinds of crazy Light powers. The ability to resurrect over and over. A place in the Vanguard. A jumpship for traveling the solar system and beyond. But they're also chained to Traveler and immortality. All my human friends would grow old and die. It'd be just me and Zero, forever.

I wasn't sure I wanted that. At the same time, my own life had been so shortened. My cancer was a known quantity, though. I knew how to deal with the sickness and weakness. What would it be like to be well? I had forgotten what it was like to eat food and sleep normal hours, to have energy for anything other than work.

I felt like I was caught in a vice grip - cancer on one side, immortality on the other. Then there was the other worry - that Zero would find someone else and just leave me. I mean, Erica had. She claimed it wasn't because it had cancer, but she dumped me two days after my diagnosis. I still missed her. It hurt to see her hanging out with her new boyfriend - some athletic dude who very obviously had a long life ahead of him. I kind of expected Zero to do the same thing. When she mentioned her liking for the Hunter on our team, Rob Khan, it had reassured me that she'd ditch me someday.

Unless I let her make me her Guardian.

There it was, back and forth, caught in that vice. I just wanted to be well, and live a normal life, and not worry about slavery to a big silent ball in the sky.

_Service, not slavery_, Zero had said. _Service is what you do because you want to. It's not forced, like slavery_.

My wandering feet carried me around the arena, toward the team bunkers where the Guardians were gearing up. I didn't really want to bump into either team, so I veered off into the street behind them. All the streets had been blocked off because of the game. A lot of people and shops were open on the other roads, but this one was quiet and deserted. It was more like an alley, because no shops faced into it, and there were lots of dumpsters.

I'd just walk down to the next block, then head back to the box. I didn't want to miss the opening ceremonies, and my legs were already tired.

As I walked, I noticed a pair of feet protruding into the alley from behind a dumpster. I slowed down cautiously. A drunk or drug addict might try to jump me. I wasn't strong enough to fight them off or run away.

"Zero?" I whispered.

She appeared at my shoulder. "Yes?"

"Is that a person back there?"

Zero squinted and flew forward, staying high, out of reach of an attacker. She flew around the dumpster and gazed at the person. Then she traced a scan beam over them. "Max," she said. "Max, this is really bad. Come look."

I walked up and looked.

A Guardian lay there, slumped against the wall, eyes open, dead. A bullet hole made an ugly black wound in his forehead. He wore warlock robes in red and scarlet, with the New Monarchy logo across the shoulder. In his lap lay a ghost with its eye punctured and dark.

It was Forest Malkovich, leader of Team Firebrand. He and his ghost were dead as door nails.


	2. Chapter 2: Questions

It caused a huge stink.

The City police showed up first, since a load of them were on the next block, anyway. I was questioned.

The Cormorant Blade was called in, since this was a dead Guardian, and not something the City police were equipped to deal with. I was questioned again.

Executor Hideo, leader of New Monarchy, was dragged in to identify the body. He asked me questions, too.

The Crucible championship was put on hold. There was a huge outcry from fans and players - and then Forest's death was announced. A different outcry erupted - grief and rage. Forest Malkovich had a lot of fans. The press tried to question me, but by that time, I was dead on my feet. I had Zero transmat me home.

"That was lame," I said from where I lay collapsed in bed. It was 3 PM and I could barely move. "No tournament, Forest dead, and we're the eyewitnesses."

"We didn't witness much," Zero said, flying in circles above me. She was pacing, thinking aloud. "We found the bodies. Light, it makes me so sick to think of that poor ghost. What sicko kills ghosts?"

"More to the point, why?" I asked. "Who would want to kill poor Forest? He was a good guy. Did he cross the wrong Cryptarch or something?"

Zero made a motion like she was shaking her head. "I hope the Cormorant Blade solves this mess, quick. The rest of the team are really upset. Upset Guardians tend to misbehave."

"Maybe the other team offed him," I suggested. "Longhorn has been talking trash on the networks for weeks."

"Death threats, though?" Zero said doubtfully. "I read a lot of those interviews. It was a lot of competitive 'haha, we're better than you' kinds of things. Both teams would kill each other multiple times. That's the Crucible. Who would actually kill a player for good?"

"Somebody sick in the head," I said fervently. The idea of someone seizing Zero and sticking a knife through her sweet little eye aroused an animal rage inside me. It made me want to grab her and hold her close. My hand actually moved toward her, but I detoured to scratch my nose. Don't touch ghosts.

Zero didn't appear to notice. She was deep in the mystery. "Forest posted a pep talk on social media last night. May the best team win and so forth. All the comments are positive. I don't understand. Who would do that to him?"

"You're the investigator ghost," I told her. "Go snoop around and find out. It worked last time."

Zero hesitated and looked down at me. "Things got scary last time." She looked at my left hand, resting on my stomach. I still couldn't clench my fingers into a full fist, because of the way the killer had mangled my arm. Surgery and ghost healing had put me back together, but some nights, the pain was still pretty bad.

"Well, don't bring the killer home, then," I said, forcing a grin.

"I didn't -" she began, then broke off with a sigh. "Anyway. We're dealing with a ghost killer out there. Do you think it's safe for me to investigate alone?"

No, no, I didn't think it was safe. My stomach clenched just thinking about it. But she wasn't my ghost, was she? It wasn't like I had a lot of say in her actions.

"Let's put it like this," I said. "If you don't come back, I'll be sure you don't want me as a Guardian anymore."

Zero blinked at me. "I'll always come back," she whispered. She flew dangerously close to my face - almost close enough to touch. I could see the tiny details in her eye, the way the center expanded and contracted as her pupil focused.

"Listen," she said. "If I tell you I'm coming back - and I break my word - something bad has happened."

"What do you think will happen?" I asked.

Zero brushed her shell against my hair. "I don't know. But I'm scared. There's a Guardian killer out there, and Forest Malkovich wasn't easy to kill." She settled on her pillow beside me. "I don't want to investigate alone."

This filled me with relief I didn't care to examine. "Okay then. Tell you what. Tomorrow, at work, I'll give you access to the Team Firebrand database. You can snoop all day long. After work, we'll follow up any leads together. Sound good?"

Zero emoted a smile. "Sounds good."

* * *

Trouble was, the next day was a can't-get-out-of-bed day. I'd overdone it at the Crucible crime scene. My body simply refused to cooperate. I made it as far as the bathroom, where I sat on the floor of the shower and dozed off in the hot water. Zero woke me, and I barely managed to dry off and crawl back to bed.

She must have called in sick for me. When I next woke up, Zero had transmatted my laptop onto the bed nearby. "I told New Monarchy that you'd work from home," she said.

"Thanks," I whispered.

I managed to down my medication and work for a few hours, sitting up in bed with my laptop. I also remembered to give Zero access to the database. She worked longer than I did. When I collapsed and slept again, she took over my laptop, controlling it remotely.

I despise days like that - I lose so much time. When I next awoke, it was dark outside, and Zero was trying to coax me to eat something. I wasn't hungry, though. I sat on the edge of the bed and sipped a glass of water. "So, find anything?"

"Hard to say," Zero replied. "I'm now an expert on Crucible rules and fouls. The spokeswoman of Team Firebrand, May Thornhill, is investigating, too. The team is upset that the killer hasn't been found yet. I contacted May's ghost. We've agreed to share information."

I nodded, considering this. "Good first step. Have you tried the Cormorant Blade?"

"Yes, actually," Zero replied. "Remember Paul Johansson? He said I was such a help on the last case, he'd let me in on this one, as long as I can keep it secret. Can you keep a secret?"

"Sure," I replied. "No problem. Okay, so, what do we know so far?"

Zero projected a holographic display with her eye-light. She showed snapshots from news websites. "Forest Malkovich was killed an hour before the Crucible Championship on Saturday, March twenty-third. He had been dead about thirty minutes when we found him. He was shot with a small-caliber sidearm. They're still looking for the murder weapon. The ghost was stabbed with some kind of knife. They're not sure which of them died first. No fingerprints were found on the ghost's shell but Forest's."

"So the killer wore gloves," I said.

"Or it was an Exo," Zero pointed out. "Robot hands leave no fingerprints."

That was an angle I hadn't considered. "Huh. But there's no Exos on Team Longhorn."

"Plenty of them around, though," Zero replied. "The managerial staff on both teams have Exos."

"Okay," I said, cupping my hands behind my head and gazing at the ceiling. "So, the killer was either an Exo or wearing gloves. Who do we know with motive?"

"I've been trying to find that out," Zero said. "Forest's team was confirmed in the bunker at the time of death. They were suiting up and waiting for him. Apparently he went out for a smoke and never came back."

I'd known that Forest smoked cigarettes - cheap ones from the City's clone crops. Being a Guardian, his ghost healed any lung damage. I wasn't so lucky and had avoided them - not that it did me much good.

"So that rules out Firebrand," I said with relief. "I'd really hate to see one of them as the killer. How about Team Longhorn?"

"They're a bit trickier," Zero replied. "Two of their Titans were in the bunker at the time of the murder. But the other two had gone on a snack run and didn't return until after the time of death. One of them was seen at a nearby concession stand. The other doesn't have an alibi yet."

"Ooo, that's suspicious," I said, grabbing a notebook and jotting this down. "A Titan would be strong enough to kill a warlock."

"That's what I don't understand, though," Zero said. "Forest was sitting against the wall with his ghost in his lap. No sign of a struggle. It was like whoever killed him did it ceremonially."

Now that she mentioned it, that had seemed really weird. He wasn't beat up or dirty or anything. You'd think a Crucible champion would put up more of a fight.

"This is getting weird," I observed. "I'm off work tomorrow. I might be well enough to go snooping around, if you want."

"Oh yes!" Zero exclaimed, twirling her shell like a pinwheel. "Zero and Max are on the case!"

"Maybe," I said. "Sort of on the case. Mostly Zero and a little bit Max. Speaking of, do you think Mr. Johansson would tell us the results of the autopsy?"

"I can ask for the report when it comes out," Zero replied. "It might take a few days. Thinking the cause of death wasn't a bullet to the skull?"

"No," I replied. "That's pretty obvious. But there was no struggle ... and Forest was sitting up ... I don't know. I just wonder if there was poison involved, too."

Zero looked quickly at me, then at the laptop screen. Then she flew in a circle. "Now that's an interesting thought. It also would make this murder a lot weirder than it first appeared."

"A Guardian was murdered an hour before a Crucible championship," I replied. "By default, we're already miles into weird territory."

* * *

I slept on and off overnight. The next morning, I still felt like I'd been run over by a jumpship, but I was able to eat something and drag myself through the shower. Zero helpfully used her healing beam on me. By mid morning, I felt strong enough to venture out to the Crucible arena.

The arena had been opened up to regular games, since the Championship had been called off. A few people were scattered around the grandstands, but it wasn't nearly as packed as it had been.

I walked over to Blue Team's bunker and read the roster posted outside. Today's players were all lower-ranked competitors, none of the sponsored teams.

As I stood there with my hands in my pockets, watching bullets bouncing off the inside of the shield, Zero said, "May Thornhill is here, if you'd like to talk to her."

"Oh yeah," I said. "Which way?"

Zero appeared and led me toward the clubhouse. This was the place for players to relax and eat between games. As I walked in, I saw a handful of Guardians inside, all in battle gear, sprawled on sofas or shoveling down a snack over at the mess tables. The only one in plain clothes was May Thornhill.

She was a petite woman, slightly shorter than me, with a figure that didn't quit and arms like steel cables. She wore slacks and a vest that left her arms bare. A pair of knives hung at her waist, the only indication of her Hunter tendencies. She was talking quietly to her ghost as we approached. She looked up, saw me, smiled, and dismissed her ghost. "Yes?"

"Hey there," I said, trying not to stumble over my tongue. I was bigger than her, but she could snap me in half, if she wanted. "Uh, I'm Maximilian Ross, from New Monarchy. I was just-"

May's eyes sharpened. "Oh. You're the one who found Forest."

"Uh, yeah, actually. I wanted to talk about that, if you don't mind."

She took my arm and marched me out of the clubhouse and around to the back, where there was a bench and a whole lot of cigarette butts. It smelled of nicotine and stress. It might have been fun to have my arm held by a girl, but her hand gripped me like a steel band. She could have broken my elbow with one twist. Not the kind of thing I'm attracted to, honestly.

May let me go and looked around, up and down the little alley. When she was satisfied we were alone, she said, "You were involved in that thing with the killer in the Tower, weren't you?"

"Yes, ma'am," I said.

May peered closely at me. Her eyes were the penetrating, jet black kind that made me want to cringe away and hide.

"Huh," she said, as if reading something in my face she didn't understand. "So. When you found Forest, was there anyone else around? Maybe fleeing footsteps?"

"Nothing," I said. "I took that little back road to get to the next block. All the other roads had crowds and lines, but not that one."

May chewed her lower lip. "And ... Forest was just ... sitting there? Dead?"

I nodded. "I didn't touch him. Zero scanned him, but that was all."

On cue, Zero appeared at my shoulder. She nodded politely to May.

May blinked. "You have a ghost. Are you a Guardian?"

"She's not mine," I hedged. "We're just working together."

May tilted her head to one side and squinted at Zero. "Uh ... huh. So. You scanned him, Zero?"

"I did," Zero replied. "He'd been shot, and his ghost had been stabbed. I noticed that the ghost's memory had been damaged beyond recovery."

"Suspicious, that," May agreed. "What did that ghost see that the killer didn't want?"

"Their identity, probably," I said. "Any idea why someone would want Forest Malkovich dead?"

May moved away a few steps, tugging at her lower lip, processing what she'd just learned. After a moment, she looked up, her expression distant. "Forest had planned a special address for the start of the game. He told us that it was very important, that it would change things. And he died before he could give it."

"What was he going to say?" I asked.

May shook her head. "None of us know. I went through the files on his tablet, but there's no notes or anything."

"But somebody had to know," Zero said. "Because someone stopped him from giving the speech."

May paced up and down the alley, hands behind her back. "You didn't see anything ... meaning the killer had already left the scene. Oh, I need more information. Lord Shaxx asked me to personally investigate for him. He can't have this sort of poor sportsmanship tainting his Crucible."

"Well, there is one thing," I said. "Tell her what we observed about the body's position, Zero."

Zero explained about the corpse sitting up with the ghost in its lap. May halted and listened, her whole body tense. Her ghost appeared and listened, too.

"So, it may be nothing," Zero concluded. "But I find it awfully funny that a Crucible champion was killed without a struggle."

"That's good," May muttered. "That's real good. I need to know more. Do you think they'd let me read the results of the autopsy?"

"We'll pass it along," I said. "We have a friend in the Cormorant Blade."

May's eyebrows shot up. "Do you? You New Monarchy plebs are better connected than I thought."

"Plebs?" I said, glaring.

May waved a hand. "Just an expression. Keep your hair on. I'm going to poke around out here, ask more questions. You talk to your Cormorant Blade person. We can catch this killer before they bump off any more of the team."

"You think they would?" I asked.

May shrugged. "We don't know why they killed Forest. Any of us could be the next target." She touched her ghost, cuddling it against her cheek. It shocked me a little, seeing someone handle a ghost like that. Maybe Guardians were allowed to touch their own ghosts once they were bonded. I sneaked a look at Zero, but she didn't have any expression at all.

"Thanks for touching base," I said to May. "Guess I'd better talk to those Titans on the other team, huh?"

"Good luck," May said. "I already tried. Tex Mechanica doesn't hire Crucible players for their brains, I can tell you that much."


	3. Chapter 3: Wormspore

I said goodbye and walked away from the clubhouse, back toward the grandstands. May retreated back inside the clubhouse.

"Where might I find Team Longhorn?" I asked Zero.

"Let me check," she said, spinning her shell in a thoughtful way. Ghosts seemed to always be spinning or moving while working, like a hard drive. Or maybe like a person drumming their fingers as they worked out a problem.

After a moment, she said, "Aha, I found their ghosts. The team is hanging out at a sports bar about six blocks from here. Hmm. Should we call a cab?"

My legs were shaking a little from so much walking. "Yeah, that'd be good," I said.

I sat on the curb while Zero called a ride. After a few minutes, a passenger sparrow zoomed to a halt in front of us. Basically, it was a hovering motorcycle with two seats. The driver gestured for me to get on and handed me a helmet. It took me two tries to stand up and mount.

By the Traveler, cancer sucks. I am so sick and tired of being sick and tired. Zero's offer to make me a Guardian looked better all the time.

Six blocks on foot would have taken me an hour and all my energy. Six blocks on a sparrow took two minutes. I'd barely got the helmet on right before I was taking it off again and paying the driver. Then he was gone in a cloud of exhaust, leaving Zero and me looking up at the sports bar.

It was one of those places made mostly of corrugated tin, for some reason, with a huge covered patio full of tables and chairs. I could hear the big screen TVs from the sidewalk, playing a Crucible game. The voices of the patrons inside talked over it, laughing.

It was dark inside and smelled of fried onions. I stood there for a moment, letting my eyes adjust. The bar took up the entire back wall, and the rest of the floor space was crowded with tables and chairs. For a moment, all I could hear was Lord Shaxx bellowing, "You have the lead! Finish them!"

"This way," Zero said, flicking my hair with her shell. She led me across the restaurant to a corner table, where four huge guys were packing away burgers and a platter of fries. Their ghosts floated beside them, and all of them looked at us before their Guardians did.

"Hey," I said in greeting.

The four guys turned their attention from the TV screens to me. There were two humans and two Awoken, and all of them were built like tanks. Massive shoulders, not much neck, and heads that looked a little too small by comparison.

"Hey," they replied, or just nodded at me.

"I'm Max Ross, with New Monarchy," I said. "Mind if I ask a few questions?"

Their guard went up at once. They all sat up a little and exchanged uneasy looks. One of the Awoken guys said, "Uh, sure. Have a seat, I guess."

I dragged up a chair from an empty table and sat down. "I'm investigating Forest Malkovich's death. You guys know anything?"

One of the human guys leaned forward. "Look, kid, we didn't do it. Killing outside the Crucible's dirty dealing. We play clean, got it?"

I nodded. "I believe you, but there's some weird stuff coming to light. By the way, what're your names?"

The humans were Cap and something that sounded like Lurch. The Awoken guys were Filan and Hartman. I couldn't tell if these were first or last names, and I didn't ask.

Hartman and Lurch were the ones with the weak alibi. They'd gone out for snacks at the time of the murder. Lurch said he'd had to use the restroom, so of _course_ there were no witnesses. This brought a chuckle from his teammates.

I asked if they'd know that Forest was going to give a speech.

"Yeah," said Filan. "I had one prepared, too. Have to thank the sponsors, thank Shaxx, all that stuff."

"Apparently," I said, "Forest was going to reveal something in his speech. He said it would change everything. Any idea what that was?"

A look flashed between the four of them - an almost fearful glance. Then Cap gave a loud laugh. "He was a bloody warlock. Probably found some new power in a book he was going to try on us."

The others chimed in with their agreement, loudly.

After that, I couldn't get anything more out of them. It was all loud laughter and guffawing about how stupid warlocks were in their girly robes. This earned them some nasty looks from a couple of warlocks sitting at a booth across the restaurant. But the body language of Team Longhorn was uneasy - shifting positions, busy hands, self-grooming, messing with hair, or ghosts, or taking big bites of food. A few glints of Light began to appear along their fists and shoulders.

I excused myself and got out of there. I didn't draw a full breath until I was safely out on the sidewalk. I glanced back to make sure I wasn't being followed, but I could still hear them laughing from outside.

I said to Zero, "What'd you think?"

"They knew exactly what you were talking about," she replied. "And it freaked them out. Their ghosts, too. They all started fidgeting."

"What in the world was Forest going to say?" I wondered. "Some kind of weird Crucible politics?"

"I don't know," Zero said. "I wonder if we should talk to the team managers. Maybe we'd get a straight answer from one of them."

I couldn't face running around town any more. I wanted to go home, play video games the rest of the afternoon, and not move. "I'm tired, Zero."

She gave me a quick look. "Yes, you are. Let's call it a day."

So we went back to my apartment and played a load of games together. Turns out, ghosts are wicked good gamers - or Zero was, anyway. She kicked my butt in every fighting game we tried. When we switched to co-op, she joked about carrying me in every game. It was fun to have someone to play with who enjoyed it as fiercely as I did. Maybe being bonded to her forever wouldn't be so bad.

The next day, I had doctor's appointments.

I don't want to talk about that part. I spent four hours being poked and prodded, then having long conversations with solemn doctors. End of life planning is just as much fun as it sounds.

When I emerged from the hospital, feeling like I'd been beaten up and kicked in the teeth, Zero was waiting for me. Ghosts aren't allowed in the hospital, and she hung around the waiting room all that time.

"You didn't have to wait for me," I said. I tried to grin. My face had forgotten how.

Zero flew to my shoulder and studied me. "Bad news?"

"Cancer's in my bones." I choked on the words a little. "They'd given me a year. Now it's more like ..." My throat tried to close up. The words came out in a squeak. "... more like three months."

"Max," Zero whispered. "I'm sorry."

"Why should you be sorry?" I said, my voice cracking all over the place as I walked to the monorail station. "Three months and you've got yourself a brand new Guardian. Fresh from the coffin. Reborn in the Light and ready for an eternity of slavery to a sky ball." I sat on a bench in the shade and put my head in my hands. Tears dripped through my fingers. I couldn't stop them. Wasn't sure I wanted to. I had forgotten I was stuck in that vice grip, cancer in one side, Guardian servitude on the other. And in the middle, certain death.

"Oh, Max," Zero whispered in my ear. She landed on my shoulder. Her cool shell pressed against my cheek. "Please, let me bond to you right now. You don't have to go through this any more."

"No!" I snarled, brushing her away. "Leave me alone!"

She did, for a few minutes. Then she was back on my shoulder, leaning against my cheek without a word. I let her stay there.

Neither of us spoke for the whole ride home. Once we reached the station near my apartment, she transmatted us both home to save me the walk.

I crashed on the bed, crushed by a weight of misery. I tried to sleep, but my mind was too full of depressing things the doctors had said._ Prepare a will, if you haven't already. Funeral preparations. Notify your family. Decide now whether you want to be taken off life support._

Or I could become a Guardian. No more sickness and pain. Strength and bloodthirst, instead. A craving to make my Light ever stronger. Working for the Vanguard by killing and killing and killing. Years and years of it, with no escape.

Either choice was death - physical death, or death to who I was as a person. And there was poor Zero, trying to assure me that it wasn't so bad. But I'd worked in the Tower for four years. I knew exactly how it was. I'd watched new, wide-eyed Guardians become battle-hardened monsters. It happened fast. And that would be me. One more murder machine.

Or ... I could contemplate being taken off the life support machines and fighting for my life as I suffocated. And then Zero would still resurrect me. I'd just have no memory of the cancer. Or dying. I'd go merrily into space and kill whatever was on the hit list that day.

As I lay there, hating my life and everything about it, Zero flew up to me. "Max?"

"What?" I snapped.

She flinched a little. "I wanted you to know ... Paul Johansson just sent along the autopsy report."

A distraction! I latched onto it like a drowning man seizing a life preserver. Contemplating someone else's death was light years better than contemplating my own. I sat up, wondering if the ache in my back was from the cancer or from lying there in a weird position. "Let's see it."

Zero displayed a hologram of the document. She had read it the instant it arrived, but we both went over it slowly.

_Cause of death: .9mm bullet, likely from a sidearm or other small handgun._

_Victim had been dead approximately one hour when discovered._

_Mild bruising noted on forearms and wrists._

_Traces of wormspore on fingertips and in nasal cavity._

_Traces of wormspore and spirit bloom in bloodstream._

_Ghost cause of death: stabbing with a small blade, approximately 7 mm._

_No recoverable memory data found._

Zero and I looked at each other. "What in the name of Light is wormspore?" I asked her.

"It's this stuff from the Dreadnaught," Zero said vaguely. She pulled up an article and displayed it for me. "Apparently, it grows on dead Hive thralls in the Dreadnaught's unique internal environment. It's a transmutation agent."

She might have read it to me in Mandarin for all the sense this made. I stared blankly at the article, then scrolled back to the autopsy. "And spirit bloom. What's that?"

"It's scrapings from this crystal that grows on Venus," Zero replied. "It's a medicine, and Guardians use it to craft alloys for their weapons."

"A med," I muttered. "Looks like we were right about poison. What happens when you mix wormspore and spirit bloom?"

"I don't know," Zero replied. "Wormspore would probably turn the spirit bloom into something else. Are we looking at a new street drug?"

"Maybe so," I said. "But why would Forest be on it? Unless someone forced it on him to knock him out."

"That might explain the way he was sitting up," Zero agreed. She paced back and forth in midair. "Okay, we're looking for people with access to wormspore. Only Guardians visit the Dreadnaught - it's the Hive flagship. They patrol it to keep their numbers down."

"I know that much," I replied. "Hideo offers bounties for it sometimes. But what happens to the wormspore they bring back? Seems irresponsible to sell it in the City." I opened my laptop. "Let's check the sales websites."

I found two places actually selling wormspore, and they wanted crazy prices for it. Lots of other places purported to sell it, but they turned out to be scams.

Digging a little deeper, I found listed uses for it. Treating metal alloys. Enhancing armor. Heating it and glazing leather, with altered the color and conductivity. The weapons manufacturers all used it, including Tex Mechanica, I was interested to see. But these were all industrial uses, not medical.

I searched for studies on the effects of wormspore on the human body. That was more interesting. It seemed that the stuff reacted violently to Darkness or Light being applied to it. The Gensym Scribes had invented twenty-two different forms of wormspore this way, some of which were incredibly poisonous. Others were more benign, empowering a Guardian's Light and sometimes even changing its class, usually to Void.

But nothing mentioned what happened to it when mixed with spirit bloom.

I looked up spirit bloom, next. Plenty of beneficial drugs had been derived from it, mostly to treat the nervous system and brain. It helped with things like depression and dementia. It was also used by Guardians to create an alloy that conducted Light, useful for their weapons and armor. But nowhere could I find mention of what might happen if the two materials were mixed.

"Zero," I said, after an hour of reading, "we might need to talk to Lord Shaxx about this."

Zero nodded, then shivered a little. "I hope he doesn't get too mad. He scares me when he gets loud."

I grinned. "You're scared of Shaxx?"

Her eye darted from side to side. "N-no, I just ... don't like it when he shouts. All the Vanguard are kind of scary, don't you think? Zavala never smiles, and Ikora is a walking Nova Bomb, and Cayde-6 has those knives ..."

I chuckled a little, because I couldn't fault her for those observations. I had as little to do with the Vanguard as possible, myself, for the same reasons.

I experimentally stood up in my bare feet, gauging my energy level. Zero flew around me and swept me with a healing beam. It refreshed me a little.

"I think I could walk around the Tower a bit," I said, and reached for my shoes.


	4. Chapter 4: Leads

Lord Shaxx had a room off the Vanguard command chambers. It was lined with monitors, had a huge control center where he operated the Crucible arenas remotely, and had soundproof foam on the walls. Apparently, we weren't the only ones who grew tired of his shouting.

Lord Shaxx was a giant of a man in Titan armor, orange and white, with a fur collar and pauldrons on his shoulders. According to rumor, the fur came from a grizzly bear he'd killed with his fists. He wore a helmet that had once had two horns, like a Viking's, but one was broken off.

Zero and I waited around in the lobby until Lord Shaxx finished commentating a match and emerged to stretch and refill his coffee mug.

"Hello, sir," I said, straightening my New Monarchy uniform.

"Greetings, soldier," Lord Shaxx boomed. "How might I help you?"

I glanced around the lobby, where other humans and Guardians would overhear every word. "I've come with an update about the championship case. Could we go somewhere more private?"

"Certainly." Shaxx opened the door and ushered me into the soundproof commentator room. He sat in his vast swivel chair, and had his ghost transmat me a chair from somewhere. "Sit down, Maximilian Ross. I am aware that you are unwell."

I obeyed, slightly shaken. "You do? How?"

"You've been the topic of much gossip, I'm afraid," Shaxx said, shaking his horned helmet. "There may be a betting pool on whether you choose to accept your ghost's offer. I wouldn't know anything about that, of course."

"Of course," I echoed, my face growing hot. I couldn't bear to look at Zero, but I sensed her creeping backward to hide behind me.

"To what do I owe the pleasure of your visit?" Shaxx asked. He pushed his helmet back a little and sipped his coffee.

I dragged my thoughts back from _betting pool_ and _Guardians gossiping about me._ "Uh, so, the autopsy report on Forest Malkovich came in. Have you seen it?"

"I have not," Shaxx replied, setting down his cup with a sharp clink.

I motioned to Zero. "Send his ghost the report." As she obeyed, I went on, "Long story short, Forest was drugged. But it's a mix of wormspore and spirit bloom. We have no idea what that might do."

Shaxx's ghost displayed the report as a hologram. Shaxx studied it, resting his chin on one fist. He was silent a long moment, unmoving. Then he slowly straightened, turning to face me. "This is not the first time I've seen wormspore and spirit bloom mixed. But it had better be the last." His voice was low and angry.

"Sir?" I said.

Shaxx rose to his feet and paced around the room. "Every so often," he said in that low, dangerous voice, "some ignorant sweaty tries to cheat. When a human athlete cheats a game, he takes steroids to enhance his muscular capabilities. When a Guardian cheats, he takes drugs that exponentially increase his Light. Then he destroys his opponents, because he is able to generate supercharge upon supercharge until the drug wears off."

"This happens?" I exclaimed. Personally, I'd pay money to see a fight like that.

Shaxx nodded. "Not since before you were born, Maximilian Ross. Every few decades, it rears its ugly head. And it seems that some enterprising person has stumbled across the formula once more."

"If so," I said, "why did they kill Forest?"

"The drug is a delicate mixture," Shaxx replied, "owing to the instability of the ingredients. It can create either a powerful suppressant, or it can create a power-boosting effect, all within a few milligrams. Whoever mixed this dose used it to incapacitate Forest, perhaps as a demonstration. As to why he was killed ... I'm beginning to think that he knew who was responsible and was going to expose them on City-wide TV."

This made a terrifying amount of sense. I tried to keep my face professional, but light bulbs were flashing throughout my brain. Forest had threatened someone by preparing to tell the truth. I thought of Team Longhorn, their nervousness and loud laughter, as if trying to disguise it. Had they been taking the drug? Or had been planning to? They certainly acted like they knew about it.

"I think," I said, "I'm going to have a little chat with the Tex Mechanica team management."

"Be careful," Shaxx advised. "If the killer thinks you're getting too close, they'll kill you, too. Your ghost will resurrect you with no memory, and you'll be starting from scratch."

"At this point, sir," I said glibly, "that doesn't sound too bad."

* * *

I tried to contact the manager of Team Longhorn, but they weren't available that day. Or that week. Or that month.

I hung up my phone and scowled at Zero. "According to the secretary, the manager has no schedule openings for the foreseeable future."

"That sounds suspicious," Zero said, spinning her shell thoughtfully.

We had left Shaxx's room and walked out into the Tower plaza, where I sat on a shady bench and made the call. It was a breezy day with a lot of low, damp-looking clouds scudding by. It would probably turn to rain later. It matched my mood.

"Who else is a suspect?" I asked, folding my arms. "Team Longhorn sure acted weird, but that's not evidence. Their manager won't speak to anyone, but that's not evidence. Should I try Team Firebrand's manager?"

"I suppose so," Zero said. "I don't think Forest's team would do him in, but we have to cover all the bases. What's Sherlock Holmes say? Eliminate the impossible, and what remains, however improbable, is the truth?"

"Sounds about right," I said. I hadn't read those books since my upper school literature class. "Let's see if Sair will talk to little old Maximilian Ross."

Wichita Sair was the Firebrand manager under New Monarchy. I'd seen her in and out of the booth, talking to Executor Hideo throughout the championship playoffs. She was a short, no-nonsense woman with straight black hair and thick glasses, and she knew Crucible rules and strategies cold. She'd managed other winning teams, which was why New Monarchy had lured her over to run their team.

My call went to voice mail without ringing. But as I was stammering my way through a message, the line clicked and Sair picked up. "Hello, Ross. What's this about?"

"Oh," I said, off-balance for a second. "I didn't expect - uh, right. I was calling to ask if you had any leads about Forest's murder."

"Are you with the police?" Sair asked cautiously. "Or the media? I have to protect my team's reputation."

"Neither," I replied. "I'm just asking questions alongside the team, trying to find out what happened. We're afraid there were drugs involved."

"Drugs!" Sair exclaimed. "What do you mean, drugs? No one on either team is taking anything. Standard rules."

"Forest had wormspore in his bloodstream."

There was a stunned silence. Then Sair cursed, very softly, in a wondering sort of way. "Was he taking it on the sly? Or was it given to him?"

"Nobody knows, yet," I said. "I'm trying to find out. You're his manager, so I thought you'd know."

"His manager, yes," Sair replied. "Not his mother." She hesitated a moment. "I'll have to think about this. Have you told anyone else?"

"It was in the autopsy. The Cormorant Blade knows, and so does Shaxx."

Another long pause. Sair sighed. "It's only a matter of time before it hits the media. Thanks for the tip, Ross. I understand things a little better, now. Keep your head down, because things might get ugly."

I tried to curl my left hand into a fist. The fingers wouldn't quite do it. "Believe me, ma'am, I have no intention of being near ground zero when this blows."

"See that you don't," she said, and hung up.

Zero had floated close by, listening in. We exchanged glances.

"What do you think?" I asked.

Zero made the equivalent movement of shaking her head. "I don't know. We should talk to both managers. In the meantime, why don't we touch base with May Thornhill again? We promised her a copy of the autopsy."

"Right," I said. "But since we're here in the Tower, I'm going to drop in on Paul Johansson."

* * *

Paul Johansson was the only overweight Guardian in the Vanguard. His ghost had resurrected him that way. He used to work hard to slim down - and then would die in combat and would resurrect as overweight again. Maybe his ghost was glitched or something. Anyway, he embraced it, took a desk job, and stopped caring about his weight. His ghost wore a courier shell that was always packed with snacks. I had a passing wish that Zero could carry snacks like that.

The Cormorant Blade office was upstairs in the Tower, full of cubicles and desks where the detectives worked. They took cases involving Guardians and Guardian-related casesv that were too much for City Police. Everyone in here was probably a badass fighter, but you'd never guess it from their uniforms, often worn over casual clothes.

Paul Johansson looked up as we entered, his round face splitting in a grin. "Hey, it's Max and Zero! How's it going, you two?"

"Decent," I said, walking up to his desk and lowering my voice. "We read the autopsy on Forest Malkovich."

"Did you," Paul said, leaning back in his chair and steepling his fingers. "What did you think?"

I told him what Shaxx had said, about the formula for a performance-enhancing drug being found and used every few decades. And I mentioned Shaxx's suspicion that Forest had been going to expose the perpetrator. Paul listened, his forefingers pressed to his chin. His ghost floated close beside him, recording everything.

When I finished, Paul continued to sit there for a moment, staring past me, deep in thought. Finally he said, "Lord Shaxx brings up many good points. I remember the last bust we made. Elder dust, they called it then. Guardians living in supercharge, gave us quite a fight. We had to wear them down until they collapsed of Light burn."

I tried to imagine this. If it had happened outside the Crucible, they must have turned part of the City into a smoldering crater. Horrifying.

"Elder dust has made a comeback," Paul said to his ghost. "Pass the word along. Scan the latest reports to see if there's any word of Guardians acting erratically." He turned to me as his ghost vanished. "With luck, we've caught this before it spreads too far. If we can find the chemist and the dealers, we can stamp this out before it starts. Any other leads for me?" He looked hopeful.

I recounted everyone I had talked to - May Thornhill, Team Longhorn, Sair, and the Tex Mechanica manager who refused to talk to anyone. "I'm going to meet up with May again and give her the autopsy, if that's all right."

Paul waved a hand. "Fine, fine. The truth will out." He was writing notes as he spoke. As he finished, his ghost reappeared. Paul opened his shell and extracted two enormous cookies. "Want one?"

I accepted a cookie - oatmeal raisin nut - and nibbled the edge. "Do you think we're close to finding the killer?"

Paul nodded. "The more people who know about this, the more likely we'll flush them into the open. When that happens, the Cormorant Blade will be waiting."

* * *

I was still working on the cookie when we met up with May Thornhill again, out by the Crucible arena.

She brushed back her long hair and gave my cookie an envious look. "You said you had the autopsy report?"

I had Zero send it to her ghost. They read it while I tried to finish eating. That cookie seemed to grow bigger and bigger the longer I worked at it. Must have been the oatmeal.

May was twitchy - constantly looking over her shoulder, flicking back her hair, reaching up to pet her ghost. After a moment, I said, "Something wrong?"

May opened her mouth and closed it again. She glanced at her ghost, who nodded. Then she turned to me. "My sidearm is missing."

I blinked. "You lost a gun?"

"No, it's _missing_," she repeated. "I looked for it in my weapons locker this morning. It's gone. It fires nine millimeter bullets."

The significance finally sank in. I stared at her. "You think it was the murder weapon?"

"I'm worried, yes," May said in a low voice. "It'll have my prints all over it."

This was bad - assuming she hadn't killed Forest herself and was lying. "Let's think about this," I said. "Who has access to your weapons chest?"

"In my apartment?" she replied. "Only my ghost and me. But I had brought it down to the clubhouse during the championships. I'm afraid the sidearm disappeared then."

I whistled softly and looked at Zero. "Any ideas?"

"It could have been anyone," Zero said. "But only one person had means, motive, and opportunity. We have to identify that person."

May and I talked about it for a long time. We eliminated Team Firebrand, who had a rock-solid alibi. Team Longhorn couldn't be eliminated entirely. The absent manager was suspicious. Beyond that, we had no leads. The killer could have been any of the fans in the grandstands, or the team gofers, or anyone.

At last, I was too tired to talk and think anymore. I told May goodbye and had Zero transmat me home. Too full of cookie to bother with dinner, I fell into bed and dreamed about Shaxx bellowing at me. "You're so close, Guardian! Don't let me down!"

* * *

"A betting pool," I muttered the next morning.

I was sitting at my computer with a cereal bowl, trying to focus on the morning news articles. Instead, all I could think of were Guardians placing bets on whether or not I'd accept Zero's offer.

I guess it was because I was stumped on the case. It had stopped being a puzzle and had become a wall I couldn't climb. Instead, my brain chewed on the next most interesting thing. Namely, how did the Guardians know?

Zero gave me a sideways glance. "When Shaxx said that, I wanted to die of embarrassment."

"How does anyone even know?" I asked her. "Have you gone around, telling people that you're pining for me?"

"Of course not," Zero said, looking indignant. "I think it's because we discussed it in the Tower plaza a few times. Lots of opportunity for eavesdropping. I openly follow you around, too."

Ugh, it made sense, put like that. I covered my face in both hands. "This is hard enough without an audience."

Zero said thoughtfully, "I wonder what the odds are?"

I dropped my hands and glared at her. "Really?"

She flinched backward. "I'm just curious. I mean, are they betting for or against?"

"Why does it matter?" I said, shoving a spoonful of cereal in my mouth. "You'll get me either way. Whether I want it or not."

"Oh," Zero said softly. She sounded so wounded that I looked up. She had pulled her segments around her eye, so she looked like she was crying. "I don't want you to die, Max. I want to heal you and see you happy again. If you die, that means I failed, even if I do take you as a Guardian."

"If?" I said.

Zero gazed at me, then looked away. "Max, if you don't want to be a Guardian, then I won't resurrect you. I'll find someone else. I'll respect your wishes."

This heartfelt offer hit me like a two-by-four to the head. First, there was instant relief. One half of the vice grip fell away. If I said no, then she'd abide by my wishes. I would die and move on to the afterlife.

On the other hand, I realized that I'd been counting on her to resurrect me. It took some of the sting out of my swiftly-nearing death. Without it, I was going to plunge into the void and hope for the best - hope that the various religious arguments I'd heard were true, and that the whispers that the Darkness devoured departing souls was mere conjecture.

She wasn't going to force me. The resistance in me relaxed. But it was replaced by a different distress.

I guess I sat there for a long time without saying anything. Zero ventured, "Are you all right?"

"Peachy," I replied, but my voice sounded hollow. I found that I'd lost my appetite. I threw away the rest of my breakfast, took my medication, and put on my New Monarchy uniform. It all passed in a haze of inattention, because I was so busy thinking about Zero's offer. I barely even noticed the ache in my limbs that wouldn't go away, or how heavy my clothes seemed on my body.

I would die. Zero would go out and find another Guardian. Another guy, maybe a buff Titan like the Longhorn team. He'd treat her flippantly, use her for healing and resurrections, and hacking the occasional alien computer. She wouldn't be a person to him.

Or she'd find a girl like May, who would cuddle her all the time and make her feel loved. They'd hang out, play video games, have long conversations about everything, and be best friends.

Both of these possibilities made me incoherently angry.

I tried to figure out why, as I left my apartment and locked the door behind me. Why did Zero's fate matter so much to me? And what would happen if she never found her Guardian, and the Fallen got her, somewhere out in the wilds? I envisioned her poor little metal body, the eye punctured and dark like Forest's ghost, lying alone in the snow. This thought made me even angrier.

As I stomped down the stairs, I had to admit that I was furious because I cared about her. I liked her sweet little voice, the way she crushed me in video games, her constantly cheerfulness that brightened my worst days.

Blast it all. I hadn't wanted to be a Guardian because I didn't want the baggage, the obligation to the Traveler and so on. But the thought of what would happen to Zero once I was gone did something to me.

She followed along at my shoulder, giving me anxious looks. "I'm sorry if I upset you," she said humbly. "I know I've made you unhappy, and ... and that wasn't my intent."

"It's not you," I said brusquely. But then, as I headed along the sidewalk toward the bus stop, I added, "Actually, it is you. Thinking about you with someone else."

She nodded and didn't say anything. I could almost feel the misery radiating from her.

"And I don't want that," I said. "You're not finding some other jerkwad who might be mean to you. And you're not going back out into the wilds for the Fallen to pick off."

She blinked and looked at me hopefully.

I stamped toward the bus stop, where a few other people were waiting, too. I had to get this out before we had an audience. I drew a deep breath and stepped off the cliff. "So, I think I want you to make me your Guardian. Not right now. Tonight, after work, when I'm tired and need it."

Zero made a glad trilling sound and zipped around and around me, spinning herself in spirals. "I'm so happy! Max, I'm so happy! You won't have to suffer anymore!"

I wasn't sure it was the right decision, even now. My stomach wobbled. I'd put it off a few more hours. Give myself time to grapple with my entire life changing in an instant. Maybe I'd talk to some Guardians, find out what it was like.

I reached the bus stop with a ghost zipping around me like a giddy parakeet. The other people gave me odd looks.

"Happy ghost," I said.

One guy stepped forward. "I've never seen one do that before." And he slapped a handful of dirt in my face.

No, it wasn't dirt, because it burned like hot pepper. It got in my mouth and nose, where it burned and tasted like bitter toilet cleaner. I gagged and clawed at my face. "What the-"

The other people converged on me. One grabbed my arms and pulled them behind my back. Another one slammed a bag over my head, trapping me in smothering darkness with burning crap in my nose and mouth. My head began to swim, dizziness making me stagger. Strong hands lifted me off my feet.

"Grab the ghost," someone said.

Zero made a garbled screaming sound. I tried to struggle my way toward her, but they held me down. Voices laughed grimly. I couldn't see through the bag, and the filthy crap on my face was getting into my eyes. I struggled and cursed, but the dizziness was getting worse. I coughed.

"Hold him," someone else said. "He'll be out soon."

"Zero," I gasped, twisting my head back and forth, trying to get the bag's cloth out of my mouth. Black spots crawled across my vision. That was the last thing I remembered.


	5. Chapter 5: Elder dust

I awoke somewhere dark, lying on cold, hard concrete that sent pain radiating through my bones. The bag was still over my face. The dust in my nose and mouth burned and itched, and my eyes were so swollen, I could barely open them. What had that stuff been?

I moved my head a little. Vertigo hit me so hard, I thought I was hanging upside down and spinning at the same time. I lay on the concrete, thankful for its solidness, because that was the only way I could tell which direction was up.

"Zero?" I whispered.

No answer. It was quiet, wherever I was, with a low hum of electrical equipment. My hands were tied above my head. They were so numb, I couldn't even feel the ropes.

I had time to think, lying there in the cold and dark. Why would anyone want to kidnap Zero and me? Every one of those people at the bus stop had been waiting to jump me. What did they expect? I was in no condition to put up a fight.

The answer was all too obvious. I skirted around it in my mind, unwilling to ask if my investigation had gotten me too close to the drug ring. Because if that's who had caught me, I was as good as dead. Zero was probably already dead.

This thought filled me with such grief and rage, I fought the ropes and bag for a few minutes. But when pain began to throb through my arms, I stopped, panting. The bag kept threatening to clog my nose and mouth.

So, I had gotten too close to the killer. May Thornhill was missing her handgun. Was she the killer? Team Longhorn? The managers? I still didn't know. I hadn't recognized any of the thugs at the bus stop. But they had sure taken pains to knock me out.

That meant that the irritating stuff on my face was probably Elder Dust. A mix of crystals and some vile stuff that grew on dead Hive Thralls. That was in my nose and mouth. It had made me super sick.

Why did they use it on me? I was a weak, dying human, not a Guardian.

Unless they saw Zero hanging around me and thought I was a Guardian.

I lay very still, holding this concept in my mind like a delicate bubble.

_They thought I was a Guardian._

They had tried to incapacitate me the way they had Forest Malkovich. But I had no Light to boost or suppress. I was only a vanilla human. While the drug had made me sick and put me under for a while, it hadn't utterly destroyed me.

"Zero," I croaked through a mouth as dry as cotton wool. If only I could tell her this, we could come up with a plan. But as far as I could tell, I was alone. Maybe her poor little corpse already lay nearby, and I had no idea.

Anger swept me again. At the same time, that cancerous weariness weighed on me. I had already spent too much precious energy on the Guardian thing, and being kidnapped. I didn't have enough left to feel angry. I had to save what strength I had left for when the killer returned.

They thought I was a Guardian! I could use that to my advantage, somehow. Maybe threaten to use a supercharge on them. Bluff for all I was worth. Maybe have a chance to escape or call for help before they snuffed me.

Escape ... the idea of running exhausted me. I wouldn't be going anywhere, not for a long while. But maybe I could call for help. Somehow. _Light, don't let Zero be dead_.

After what seemed like a very long time, a door clicked and opened somewhere nearby. A light snapped on overhead, shining through the fibers of the bag. Footsteps rang on concrete. Voices murmured in an echoing place.

"He's awake. He should be out for hours."

"Maybe he didn't get a full dose."

"Get him up."

Footsteps approached me. Someone knelt beside me and unhooked my bound hands, dragging me to a sitting position with my hands behind me. Then they pulled off the bag over my head.

More vertigo hit me and I nearly fell over. The thug beside me grabbed my shoulder and held me up, grinning. "Good dope, huh?"

I squinted through swollen eyelids. The nearest thug was nearly as muscle bound as Team Longhorn's Titans. Another thug stood nearby, holding a rifle at the ready in case I tried something. Beyond him was a short woman with straight black hair and thick glasses. Wichita Sair, manager of Team Firebrand. She was staring at me, her glasses magnifying her eyes.

I blinked at her in disbelief. My brain refused to process the implications of her presence. She had been Forest's manager. She couldn't be the one behind this. She just couldn't.

"Where's my ghost?" I croaked.

"They always ask for the ghost, first," said the thug with the rifle.

Sair rolled her eyes. She reached behind a nearby table and lifted Zero into view. A metal band was wrapped around her, two green lights shining from its middle. Zero's eye was bright and active, darting this way and that, but she couldn't seem to move.

"Praxic capture tech," Sair said. "Your ghost is fine, for now. But you'll receive no healing or resurrections, so you'd better cooperate."

I had a second to look around the room. It looked like the inside of a warehouse, with a high, arched roof, distant windows, and the concrete floor. Tables and shelves were set up to divide it into a smaller space. On them were beakers, vials, glass tubes, Bunsen burners, and all the other trappings of a laboratory. Glass containers stood on the shelves, each filled with colored powders. Some of them glowed.

"You're making Elder Dust?" I said.

Sair walked up and stood over me, arms folded. She carried a sidearm in one hand. A nine millimeter. "I'm surprised you didn't figure it out sooner. How much do you think you ingested?"

"Not much," I replied. "Can I have some water?"

"No," Sair said. "Forest took in nearly a whole gram. You seem to have taken less than that. Can you sense your Light?"

I couldn't help it. I grinned at the ludicrousness of this.

"Don't you dare!" Zero snapped from the table.

Sair trained her sidearm on me. "You can't have a supercharge. You wouldn't still be sitting there."

They were all scared of me, I realized. She probably thought she could kill me and resurrect me, the way Guardians did. So I blew my cover as fast as I could. "Don't kill me! I'm not a Guardian! I can't come back!"

"Nonsense," Sair said. "You have a ghost."

"We're not bonded," I said. "Check her ID tag."

Still watching me, Sair sidestepped to the table and worked the controls on Zero's restraint band. Her holographic display popped up with her ID tag. Unbonded.

Sair and the thugs exchanged a quick, flabbergasted look. The tension seemed to drain out of them. Sair holstered her gun. She walked briskly back to me, knelt down, pulled out a pen light, and examined my eyes. "We gave a human a guardian's suppression dose. Looks like he had a bad reaction to it. Is your throat swollen?"

"Yeah," I said. "Can I have some water?"

This time, they gave me some water. They'd entirely lost their fear. The rifle thug returned it to his back. The two guys stood to one side, talking, as Sair examined me and asked me questions. Then she drew about a quart of blood and took it to her lab equipment to examine.

Losing blood pretty much put the lid on my energy level. I leaned against the stack of crates where they had left me, limp and useless, only able to watch and think.

"Can I have my ghost?" I asked again. "It's not like she'll do me any good."

Sair didn't look up, but jerked her head at one of her minions. "Give him the ghost. I don't want to listen to him whine."

One of the guys picked up Zero and tossed her at me. She landed in my lap, and I sort of caught her with my knees. I rolled her upright, so I could see her eye. We sat there, gazing helplessly at each other.

"So, this was fun," I whispered.

"You look terrible," she whispered. "Your face is all broken out in blotches."

"Thanks," I replied. "Did they hurt you?"

"A little," she whispered, glancing fearfully at the thugs. "The drug was supposed to suppress me through you. It should kill a ghost. They were waiting for me to die."

I tried to smile, but my mouth was the wrong shape. "Good thing I put you off bonding right away."

"Yes." Zero struggled a little, rocking back and forth. "Can you press the release button on the band? It's to the right of the green lights."

I saw it, but I couldn't reach it with my hands tied. I dipped my head toward her, but I couldn't reach it with my nose, either. "Can you hack it?" I whispered.

"I can try," she whispered back.

I leaned back against the crates and watched Sair work, and the thugs keeping an eye on me.

"Hey," I said, to divert attention from Zero, "do you think the Elder Dust interacted with my medications?"

Sair looked over her shoulder at me. "Medication? What are you on?"

I gave her the list. At this stage, it was pretty extensive.

Sair blinked at me through her glasses like an owl. "Those are cancer meds. Do you have cancer?"

"Yes, ma'am," I replied.

"Fascinating," she breathed. "That explains the abnormalities in these cells. I believe the wormspore actually enhanced the tumors."

"It's killing me faster?" I asked.

"Perhaps," Sair said. "This is a different formulation of Elder Dust than previous versions. I hadn't considered medical applications. We may keep you alive for some time. It's not every day an opportunity like this drops into our laps."

"I didn't consent," I said.

She waved a hand dismissively. "Forest did, once he understood."

I drew a deep breath. "Why did you kill him?"

"He was taking the Elder Dust as a trial," Sair replied. "He signed a non-disclosure agreement and everything. It's how they reached the championships. But he got cold feet and was preparing to go public. We couldn't allow that - not with so many wins. It would have sullied the whole experiment. We were going to sell Elder Dust to the Vanguard as a booster for the Guardians. If they turned us down, plenty of criminal elements in the City would pay us quite handsomely. So Forest, regrettably, had to be silenced."

It made sense, in a criminal mind sort of way. "So," I said, "are you a manager or a scientist?"

"Both," Sair replied. "I was a scientist long before I got into organized sports. I have a team of chemists that I oversee during Crucible season."

I nodded and watched her return to her lab equipment. She was awfully chatty, which told me she had no intention of letting me walk out of here alive. I'd have to play the docile captive as long as possible, until Zero could get a message out.

"Why'd you kidnap me?" I asked.

"You knew too much," Sair replied over her shoulder. "When you called me up and asked those questions, I knew we had to move."

"More people will ask questions now that I've disappeared," I said. "You can't silence everyone."

"No," said Sair. "But I've bought us time."

* * *

By nightfall, my lower back and pelvis were a mass of pain from sitting on the concrete. The allergic reaction had died down a little, so I could open my eyes a little better. When one of the thugs brought me a bowl of soup and sloppily fed it to me, it seemed like the best thing I'd ever tasted.

They let me use the restroom, then thoughtfully locked me in a different room for the night, one with carpet and a sofa in it. The sofa was so much softer than the floor, I wanted to cry in relief as I settled into it.

They tossed Zero in after me. She bounced off the sofa and rolled across the floor. "Hey!" I yelled as they locked the door. "Be more careful!"

Zero lay on the floor in the Praxic band, looking up at me sadly. "Ouch," she whispered.

I couldn't reach her with my hands behind my back. I sat there and stared for a long moment. I flexed my elbows. Maybe I could slip my hands around to the front. We might be able to escape, if I could. I was underweight from being sick for so long, so I should be able to squeeze my arms down and around me. I dragged my hands down behind me, stretching at the rope.

Zero watched. "What're you doing?"

"Switching things around," I said, standing up. I bent over, sliding my body through the loop of my arms. I had to fight my hips through. Then my arms were around my knees. I had to fold up and pull my legs through my arms. They didn't want to bend that much, and it hurt my wrists and shoulders. But I was bound and determined to get my hands in front of me. So I fought my own body, and in the end, I did it.

Now in front of me, my hands were crossed in an awkward way. But I was able to stoop and pick up Zero. I carried her to the couch with me and set her in my lap.

"You know," I said, "I've never handled you this much before."

"I know," she said ruefully. "Only a Guardian should touch a ghost. But you're almost my Guardian."

"Almost," I said. I found the release button on her band and pressed it with my cold fingers. The band snapped open. Zero zipped into the air, spinning her shell segments. They made a scraping sound. She opened her shell and expanded into a sphere of Light. Inside it, her core was badly dented, as if she'd been hit by a rock.

"What happened to your core?" I exclaimed.

"One of the thugs had a strong grip," Zero replied. She closed her shell, but one segment wouldn't attach properly to the dented spot. She fumbled it into place a few times, then simply let it hang from her Light field. She looked like a bird with a broken, dragging wing. It sent a mingled pain and rage through me. They had hurt Zero - my little girl ghost. If I had been a Guardian at that point, I think I would have burned the building down.

She flew up to me and examined the ropes holding my wrists. "I think you can untie these with your teeth," she said. She highlighted one strand with her scan beam. "Start there. I'm going to call the Cormorant Blade."

I set to work on the ropes with my teeth, tugging this strand, then that one, at Zero's guidance. The ropes slowly began to loosen.

"I got through," she reported. "I reached Paul and his ghost Bud. They're gathering a team and they'll be here at dawn. But this is a rough area, and they don't know how long it will take it get in. They want to catch the drug ring, not chase them off."

"Good points," I said, wiping my mouth on my shoulder. "Guess we have to put up with a night out here. I am so tempted to have you bond with me right now."

Zero gave me a silent, longing look. But she said, "There's still Elder Dust in your system. If I bonded, it would immediately suppress your Light. I might drop dead."

The very thought turned me cold all over. "We'll take a rain check, then," I said.

After ten minutes of working at the knots with my teeth and shredding my lips, the ropes finally came undone. I rubbed my wrists and hands, restoring circulation, so relieved to be free.

"Can we escape?" I asked. "Are there guards outside?"

Zero flew to the door, opened her shell, and sent out a faint pulse of Light. After a moment she closed her shell and returned. "The door is locked. The guards are in another room about a hundred feet away. There is another person in the room next door to this one. They are curled up in a funny way, and their door is locked. Another prisoner, maybe."

I stood up, groaning. My contortions while working my hands in front of me had done my sore legs and hips no favors. I wouldn't be running any time soon. But maybe I could walk next door.

"Can you unlock the door?"

"I am a ghost," Zero said, suddenly cheerful. "I can unlock any door. Even an analog lock like this one."

"Hey," I said softly.

She turned to me. I gently closed my hands around her and lifted her out of the air, pushing the hanging segment back in place for a moment. "Thanks," I whispered. "For being there. Doing all this. Sticking with me."

"It's my pleasure," she said, emoting a smile. "You're worth it, Max."

I carried her to the door and let her go again. I wanted to keep holding her, spend all night gazing into that bright little eye, but we had things to do.

Zero shone a concentrated beam of Light into the door for a moment. The tumblers clicked and the lock opened. I turned the knob and opened the door a crack. The hallway outside was quiet and empty. I slipped out and limped to the next door down the hall.

Part of the warehouse must have been converted to offices at some point. At the end of the hall, I could see out into the warehouse proper, where the laboratory was. But everything was dingy, the ceiling panels sagging and water stained. The floor had piles of dust in the corners. It smelled like musty wallboard - I thought it did, anyway. My sense of smell was still wrecked from inhaling Elder Dust.

We reached the next door and Zero unlocked it. I opened it carefully. "Hello?"

It was dark inside. Zero hovered over my head and shone her headlight inside.

This room had no furniture, only a couple of dirty blankets making a nest on the floor. Lying on these was an Exo woman in a pants suit. She didn't stir as we entered.

"Hello?" I repeated, limping toward her cautiously. I half-expected her to jump up and lunge for my throat. But all that happened was that her head turned and she blinked up at me. Her eyes glowed blue. She was the sort of Exo model with a smoothly curved face and lips, almost unsettlingly human. She had a blue and white paint job, but as I knelt beside her, I realized that her face was scratched and dented with fresh, silver damage.

"Who are you?" she said. Her voice was very robotic-sounding, as if she had the Exo equivalent of a sore throat.

"My name's Maximilian Ross," I told her. "These people captured me. The Cormorant Blade will be here at dawn. My ghost said you were a prisoner, too, so I came to see if I could help."

The woman struggled to sit up. As she did, I realized the blanket beneath her was soaked with the dark fluid that passed as blood in the Exo body. Two bloody bullet holes stood out starkly against the left side of her suit jacket. She pressed a jointed, mechanical hand to the wound. "Thank you," she whispered. "My primary heart is entirely stopped. I'm running on the secondary and ... I don't know how much longer I can hold on."

I knew exactly zip about Exo medicine. But maybe a few things weren't so different. "Should I try to stop the bleeding?"

She nodded, making a grinding sound with her mouth parts. She was in pain, I realized after a second. I picked up the ratty, damp blanket and tore a strip off it. She pulled back her shirt, revealing her metal torso, two neat holes punched in her chest. They were leaking fluid at a steady pace. I stuffed each hole with cloth, patching them and stopping the leaking. The woman gasped as I did, as if it hurt a lot. Afterward, she slumped against the wall. "Thank you," she whispered. "Internal pressure is stabilizing, a little."

"Good," I said, trying to speak as gently as possible. "May I ask your name?"

"Rhannah-12," she replied, pronouncing each syllable slowly, as if speaking hurt her. "I work as the manager for Team Longhorn. Under Tex Mechanica."

A lightbulb went off in my brain. "You're the manager who wouldn't take my calls!"

"I haven't been in my office in a week," she said slowly, closing her eyes. "I apologize for my secretary's ... zeal. I instructed him to make no appointments until I returned. I attended a meeting with Firebrand's manager, Wichita Sair. I was supposed to sign an agreement to let Longhorn use their drug. A spectacular game, she said. But upon conferring with my team, they disagreed. I turned down Wichita's offer. She had me ... displaced. Another manager will soon take over Longhorn, one who is eating out of Sair's pocket."

This story took a long time to tell. Rhannah kept having to stop and breathe, pressing a hand to the wounds.

"Why didn't they kill you outright?" I asked.

Rhannah blinked at me. "My systems are full of their drug. They wanted to test its effects on an Exo. When I tried to escape, they shot me. I am under observation."

"Were there effects, then?" I asked.

Her head lolled listlessly to one side for a moment, then straightened. "I am not a Guardian. It registered as impurities. My systems will require a complete flush. Had I been a Guardian, my Light would have consumed it."

"I'm not a Guardian, either," I said. "This ghost is my friend. They gave me a suppression dose. I had an allergic reaction and that was all."

Rhannah's mouth opened a little in a smile. "Then we are in the same boat. If we can only hold out until dawn, perhaps we will yet survive."

I wanted to reassure her, but I've never been super confident around Exos. Would taking her hand be too forward? I settled for patting her shoulder. "I'll see what I can do."

I had no idea what to do. I moved away a few steps and turned to Zero. "What do we do, now? What if they check on us?"

"I'll let you know if anyone comes," Zero whispered back. "I wish I'd stored your handgun. It would be so useful right now. I did store that rope that was on your hands."

"I guess I could garrote someone," I whispered. "Light, I'm tired, though. I don't know if I have the strength. You couldn't transmat me home, could you?"

Zero turned this way and that, searching for a signal. "We're outside transmat coverage out here. They probably planned it that way so the cops couldn't just appear in the middle of their operation."

"Wonderful." I really wanted to go back to that comfy couch and pass out for a while. But I didn't want to leave Rhannah. So I returned and sat down beside her, my back to the wall.

"Not escaping?" she whispered.

"I have cancer," I whispered back. "Too tired. Zero will wake me up if anyone comes."

Rhannah's head turned toward me with a little jerk. Her glowing pupils contracted. "You have cancer ... and they dosed you with Elder Dust? What kind of cancer?"

"Lymphoma," I replied. "It's in my bones, too."

She tilted my face sideways so she could peer into my eyes. "Child, you will either die in the next few hours, or make a miraculous recovery. Wormspore's effects on cancer are well-documented."

Well, that was reassuring. I glanced at Zero. "No problem. She's waiting around for me to die so she can turn me into her Guardian."

Rhannah blinked at me and Zero for a moment. "Were I that lucky." She slowly lowered herself down on her side again, in the position she had been when I found her. "Goodnight, Maximilian Ross. I sincerely hope your cancer goes into remission and not the other direction."

I sat there on the blanket, which was only marginally softer than the concrete. I paid attention to my body, the ache in my bones and joints, the weighted tiredness that hung over me, the remaining itchiness in my eyes, nose, and mouth from the Elder Dust. I hadn't taken my medication tonight. I'd wake up in the morning with a dire migraine and uncontrollable vomiting. Yay me.

Unless I died in my sleep.

I lay down on my side, stretched out the opposite way from Rhannah. Zero landed beside my face, her shell touching my forehead.

"You think I'll bite the bullet tonight?" I whispered.

She traced my face with a healing beam. "I don't know. I'll be right here, though."

"Could you ..." I swallowed. "Could you resurrect me with Elder Dust in me?"

Zero didn't answer for a long moment. She touched me with another beam. "I don't know. It might take ... time." She sounded sad.

I dozed off, wondering if I'd wake up again.


	6. Chapter 6: Finale

I dreamed that Nathaniel and I were sitting in the New Monarchy box at the Crucible game. The teams were battling down below, and we were cheering ourselves hoarse.

"Look!" Nathaniel kept saying. "Look or you'll miss it!"

"I'm looking!" I exclaimed, watching as a warlock hurled a burning purple ball of Light.

"Not the battle," Nat said, shaking my shoulder. "Behind you, Max, behind you!"

I looked over my shoulder. I was standing in the warehouse again. Wichita Sair was working at the lab equipment, her thick glasses making her eyes huge. She looked up at me thoughtfully. "It will never be a cure," she said. "But it's definitely progress. Far more valuable than rigging Crucible games."

"You'll be behind bars," I said. "So it doesn't matter."

She turned to Forest Malkovich, who stood there in his red and yellow robes, a bullet hole still in his forehead. "You broke your contract. You knew what would happen."

"You killed my ghost," he replied. He lifted his head and his gaze met mine. "Carry on my mantle, Max. Root out evil. Stop criminals like her. For me. For my ghost."

"I will," I said.

I turned back to Sair, but she was gone. Instead, Shaxx stood there, shaking his head in disappointment. Flames burned along the horn on his helmet. "You're letting me down, Guardian."

"I'm _sick_!" I exclaimed. "I don't have the strength to be a hero!"

He pointed a finger at my nose. "That's no excuse! People are _dying_. You can decide whether or not to help them." He extended his other hand, palm upward. Zero lay there, her shell crushed and broken, but her eye still looked for me. Shaxx said, "You're breaking her heart. Ghosts can stand many things, but a broken heart is not one of them."

I reached for Zero, but Shaxx was gone. Instead, there was the loud, non-dream noise of a key turning slowly in a lock.

I jerked awake and sat up. Zero lay on the blanket beside where my head had been, her eye-light turned off. Someone was opening the door. I grabbed Zero and stuffed her inside my jacket. Then I shook Rhannah. "Wake up! Company!"

The two thugs who had man-handled me walked in, one with a handgun and flashlight, the other with his rifle. They halted when they saw Rhannah and me.

"Look at this," said the one with the flashlight. "He went to all the trouble to escape, only to join the other prisoner! Real bright, kid."

"We have orders to shoot you if you run," said the rifle thug. "So, don't try anything, mister not-really-a-Guardian." They both laughed as they walked forward. "Get up," said one. "Both of you."

"Where are we going?" I said, slowly standing.

"None of your business," rifle thug snapped.

My right hip, which I'd been lying on, almost gave out. I caught myself against the wall. My whole body ached from the concrete. The blanket hadn't been any protection at all. I did notice, however, that I wasn't dead. No withdrawal from missing my medication, either. Zero had probably healed me for hours, poor thing. I glanced down inside my jacket. Her eye glowed up at me, anxious.

Rhannah was barely conscious. They hauled her to her feet, only to have her slump back to the floor. In the end, the rifle thug had to carry her. Pistol thug made me walk ahead of him with my hands on my head and his pistol in my back.

They marched us out of the room and down the hall, out into the warehouse. Here, Sair and a lot of other people were busy packing up the lab equipment. Open boxes stood everywhere.

"Hurry," Sair snapped. "Dump the bodies and get back here, we need more help."

I inhaled a sharp, cold breath, and my heart began to hammer. Dump the bodies? They were taking us out to murder us. They must have gotten wind of the Cormorant Blade's approach. It was still dark outside, so it must be sometime between midnight and dawn.

The thugs silently guided me across the warehouse's empty space and out a side door. We were in an alley between two warehouses, with a streetlight flickering in the distance. It was so dark, I couldn't see the guy ahead of me. For a second, I thought they'd kill us right there. But one thug said, "Not here. The canal."

We turned left, toward the streetlight. I walked along with my hands on my head, my whole body flashing hot and cold by turns. I didn't dare speak to Zero - the last thing I wanted was for her to take a bullet alongside me. I only hoped she was sending messages to tell Paul Johansson to hurry.

I had to save us, somehow. Rhannah couldn't fight - she was nearly dead as it was. Zero couldn't fight - she was a ghost. She had the ropes that had been on my hands, so that weapon was available. One thug's rifle was slung across his back as he carried Rhannah. The other had his pistol against my back. I'd have to deal with pistol thug first, if he didn't put a bullet in my guts the second I moved.

What hope did I have? I was still hopped up on Elder Dust, which had screwed with my cancer. They knew this. In fact, they ...

Wait a minute.

A desperate plan flashed through my brain.

I began to limp on my sore hip, which wasn't hard - I was already sort of limping. I exaggerated it as we went along. I didn't know how far it was to the canal, and in the dark, with patchy streetlights, I wouldn't see it until it was too late, anyway. So I limped and dragged my feet and panted. When we stepped off a curb to cross a street, I accidentally-on-purpose tripped and fell. I made sure to land on all fours, so I didn't crush Zero inside my jacket. I heard her whimper a little.

"Get up," pistol thug snarled, covering me.

"Okay, okay," I whined, making heavy weather of getting my feet under me. "The drug interacted with my cancer. I'm dying."

"I'll put you out of your misery in a minute," the thug replied, gesturing with his gun. "But I'm not dragging your sorry ass all the way there, so get up and walk."

I struggled to my knees, watching that pistol. He kept it aimed at me, but the way he held it, he'd actually have to shift his grip to reach the trigger. He wasn't worried about a sick kid jumping him.

I grabbed the pistol and his wrist at the same time, trying to wrench the gun out of his hand. He yelled and hit me across the ear with his other hand. It hurt.

My left hand was weaker than my right, owing to an injury. That was the hand holding his wrist. He grabbed that hand and tore it free. I fell backward, throwing all my weight into yanking the pistol out of his hand. He staggered forward and I dashed his knuckles into the pavement. He cursed and finally let go.

I leaped to my feet, gripping the pistol in both hands. Before I'd gotten sick, I'd spent a lot of time on the firing range with my own handgun, a nice little number patterned after the old Glocks of the pre-Golden Age. Close-range weapons, tricky to aim, good for defense.

I could have aimed for center of mass and killed the guy, but that wasn't my intent. Instead, I shot him in the right knee. He screamed and fell instantly.

I whirled to find the other thug sliding Rhannah to the ground in order to reach his rifle. I shot his leg, too - higher than I meant to, in the thigh. He wailed and staggered, but drew his rifle. Before he could bring it to bear, I shot his other leg. As he crumpled, I lunged forward and ripped the rifle out of his hands. I jammed the handgun in my pants pocket and covered them both with the rifle.

Rhannah blinked up at me from the pavement. "Are you certain you're not a Guardian?"

"Perfectly," I replied, panting.

"Max," Zero said from inside my jacket. "How did you do all that? I thought you were too weak!"

"Adrenaline," I replied. Beneath the panic energy surging through my limbs, I felt a deadly weariness that threatened to claim me as soon as this was over with.

Zero said, "The Blade are on their way. I've sent them our location. They say ETA is five minutes."

Good, because five minutes was probably all I had before I collapsed.

The thugs moaned and cursed, favoring their wounds. "How'd you lose your gun to a shrimp like him?" one asked.

"I think he lied about the cancer," the other said. "No sicky could fight me like that. Why didn't you kill us, kid?"

"I still might," I said through my teeth. "Shut up." Cold sweat was beginning to run down my forehead and neck, soaking my collar.

By the time the lights of the Cormorant Blade appeared, I was barely clinging to consciousness. Only the knowledge that these men planned to murder me kept me from passing out. I gripped the rifle, which was growing heavier every second, and watched the Guardians arrive.

They took the thugs into custody. Called for an ambulance for Rhannah. Someone spoke to me, tried to take the rifle. I snarled and fought them off. I felt Zero wriggle out of my jacket and say something, but I couldn't understand her through the roaring in my ears.

I was going to fall down. So I sat on the curb, instead, gently laying the rifle aside. I set the handgun beside it. I caught myself with both hands before my face hit the concrete. I lowered myself until my cheek pressed against its cold, rough hardness.

"Zero," I called. "Zero, where are you?"

I never heard her answer.

* * *

Hospitals have a certain atmosphere. The echoing voices, clicking footsteps, PA announcements, the beep and hum of monitors. I knew I was in a hospital long before I woke up. I just worked it into whatever dream I was having at the time and went on sleeping.

What finally woke me was the warmth of Zero's healing beam. It washed over me again and again, not doing much, but it felt nice. I opened my eyes and watched her floating above me, trying to heal me. Part of her shell still dangled from her damaged core.

"It's okay," I said. "You can stop, now."

She jumped and spun around to look at me. "Oh, Max!" She flew down and bumped her eye into my cheek. It was about two days later that I realized this was how ghosts kiss their Guardians. At the time, I just thought it was funny.

"Hey, watch it," I said, grinning. "I can't escape exuberant ghost greetings."

"I'm so glad you're awake!" she said, trying to spin her shell. "You've been out for three days. They've done about a hundred tests on you. Apparently the Elder Dust put your cancer into remission. It's a huge miracle. They don't know whether it was the spirit bloom, or whether the wormspore transmuted your medications into something else. The doctors are going crazy."

This news was so huge that I couldn't grasp it. I stared at Zero for a minute. Then I had to change the subject. "That's ... that's great. Did they catch Sair?"

"Oh yeah," Zero said, bouncing in midair. "I was sending the Cormorant Blade live updates as things were happening. They came down on the escape vehicles like a missile. Nobody got away. They seized fifty pounds of Elder Dust and ingredients."

"Good." I lay against the pillow, thinking of those last, hazy, terrifying moments. "What about Rhannah?"

"Still alive," Zero said. "Touch and go, but they think she'll pull through. They say she only made it this far because somebody had slowed her bleeding." She blinked the top half of her eye. It took me a minute to realize she had winked at me.

"Guess I'm a hero, huh?" I said.

"Yes," she said, gazing at me. She flew down and landed on the pillow beside my head. "Paul Johansson is coming by to talk to you once you're fit for visitors. I guess you blew this case wide open."

"Good," I said. "Sair told them to kill us like they were taking out the trash. I hope her sentence is harsh."

"Probably," Zero said.

We were silent for a while. I lifted a hand and stroked her shell, feeling the uneven place where her core was damaged beneath. "Can you be fixed?"

"They have a ghost repair shop in the Tower," Zero said, a little too lightly. "I'll be fine."

"I'll go with you," I told her softly. "You don't have to go to the ghost hospital alone."

"Thanks," she whispered. I could tell this meant a lot to her.

I poked at the idea of my cancer being in remission. The vast, hopeful news almost overwhelmed me. I would actually get well. I could have my life back again. I didn't need to become a Guardian to survive.

That was the crux of it - that I didn't have to be a Guardian now. Zero had said that she wouldn't force me, but I had already given her my word. I'd doomed myself to immortality.

But it wasn't because I wanted the Light. It was because I wanted Zero. She couldn't stay with me forever, unbonded. Her purpose was to find her Guardian, and she had found me.

"Zero," I whispered. "What happens now?"

"What do you mean?"

"About me being your Guardian."

She didn't answer for a long moment. "Well. We don't have to rush things, now. But you're getting well. So ... you don't exactly need me."

She'd been thinking about this, too, probably a lot longer than I had.

After a moment's hesitation, she went on, "Max, if you change your mind ... that's all right. I don't have to make you my Guardian. But I'd like to go on being your friend, if you don't mind. That way, if ... if you ever decide that the Light is the path for you, I'll be there."

My fingers tightened around her shell, pulling her against my cheek. "You are so sweet," I murmured. "Stay with me, Zero. We'll figure out the timing on the Guardian thing. Besides, if they keep dosing me with Elder Dust, that'll mess up any bonding, anyway."

"Thanks, Max," she whispered. "And they do want to give you another dose and observe the effects. It would be at least six weeks before we could safely bond, anyway."

I relaxed. "I like having time. I was out of time, before."

"Yes," she agreed. But she didn't sound very happy. And for some reason, neither was I.

* * *

Paul Johansson came by two days later, before the doctors gave me more Elder Dust. He settled his huge frame in a visitor's chair and stretched out one leg. "Well, boy, I have to say I'm impressed."

I was sitting up in bed, where I'd been working on my laptop. Zero had transmatted it for me. Sick or not, New Monarchy still needed me, and I had days of work to catch up on.

I closed my laptop when Paul arrived. "Impressed, huh? That little ole me took out two thugs?"

"That you're still alive," Paul said soberly. "I've been reading the reports on the Elder Dust formulations. You received a suppression dose, which suppressed your cancer when there was no Light. If they had given you an accelerant dose, you'd have died within minutes. They thought you were a Guardian, Max. They could have killed you at any time."

Put like that, I realized just how much danger I'd been in. It made me a little dizzy, thinking about it.

Paul went on, "Your quick thinking saved Rhannah-12. Once she is recovered, she will testify about being coerced into Crucible fraud. Her evidence alone will ensure that Wichita Sair and her cronies stay behind bars for a very long time."

I nodded. "Did we ever find out who killed Forest Malkovich?"

"Yes," Paul replied. "Sair shot him, herself, with a handgun stolen from May Thornhill. I believe Sair intended to return the handgun, thereby incriminating May as the killer. However, your poking around spooked her, and she never had the chance."

"Good," I said savagely. "For a Crucible manager, Wichita Sair sure treated life cheaply."

"People become that way whose only god is their own appetite," Paul said. "Nothing is more important than themselves. Certainly not innocent lives. Had that Elder Dust hit the streets, it would have been Crucible mayhem in the neighborhoods of our poor City. Thousands would have lost their lives. However, it seems that the medical applications of the dust are on par with lost Golden Age medicine. You may have wound up saving lives that way."

"I didn't make the drug," I stammered. "I was just the guinea pig."

"So you are," Paul said. "Future cancer patients owe you their thanks." He glanced at Zero, floating silently at my shoulder. "Looks like you're hurt, Zero."

"It's nothing," she said, trying to pull her dangling shell segment back into place. "Just a dent in my core."

Paul gave me a questioning look.

"Not bonded yet," I said. "Once I'm out of the hospital, I'll make sure she's repaired. Then ... we'll see."

"Right." Paul nodded. "I'm available to answer any Guardian questions you may have. Any Guardian would be happy to talk to you, really."

"Thanks," I said. "I'll keep that in mind."

After Paul left, I turned to Zero. "Is that all right with you? If I ask questions?"

"Ask all you want," she replied. "Curiosity is a good thing. Maybe you'll turn out to be a warlock."

"And wear a _dress_?" I said. "No way. Maybe I'll be a Hunter. I'd get one of those neat cloaks. How do you know what class you'll be?"

"You take the discipline that appeals to you the most," Zero replied. "Some Guardians are born into a discipline when they resurrect. It depends on you and the shape of your Light."

I lay back against the pillow for a moment, thinking about this and smiling a little. Maybe being a Guardian wouldn't be so bad. It might even be fun.

The main thing not to lose Zero. The thought of her bonding to someone else made me sick. Not after everything we'd been through. Not after she'd been hurt on my behalf.

I'd face my fear, and conquer it, too. Zero was worth it.

* * *

The end


End file.
